"There Goes the Top of My Head" - a paraphrase of Emily Dickinson’s criteria for recognizing a true poem. Although I've left older posts here about all sorts of topic, for the foreseeable future, this will be my repository for anything literary: book reviews / reactions, writing journal, and any topics related to editing or writing poetry or fiction.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Friday Spontaneous Poem: 'a bald man speaking'

a bald man speakingI will explain my source after I see the poem. I do not want to spoil your process.

Bare Club for Menfor Brad Tree

Whether a bald man is speaking to the coldthat has infected his childrenor to the plastic vessel brimming with cough syrupor to a market square littered with overturned trash cansor to a ballpark that’s lost its third minor leagueor to the valium he’s about to swallow dry, he has to break the silence despite his baldness,stomp his foot sometimes for emphasisand wield his bald tongue.

It’s easy to sympathize with his plightespecially if you already feel badly for anyone whose dailychores include scooping kitty litter.

When the bald man is speaking you feel sorry for him,not because he can’t jump on one footand rub his belly, nor because can’t swap his snobbish tone for newscaster's,but because you know in your heart of your hearts,he’s worried

that while he’s speakingall you’re thinking about is his glistening under the compact fluorescentsand not really listening at all.

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About Me

Keith Badowski studied English Lit at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. His love for poetry emerged during work on an undergrad degree in English at SUNY New Paltz. He currently serves as a minister at Epworth United Methodist Church in Phenix City, AL. In 2009, he began a stint as President of the Georgia Poetry Society and co-founded Brick Road Poetry Press (with Ron Self). As of July 2016, he has turned his writing efforts to fiction and is fumbling through the process of writing a novel. He dearly loves his wife, Christina, and thoroughly enjoys reading novels to her in the car while she drives.